Micro Lab I

For the microbiology section of I3, we have a regular lab every MWF to learn basic techniques in culturing and identifying organisms. It's pretty cool and although it's not super well organized, it's a nice change of pace. We do basic things like Gram stains, pure cultures, TSI slants, and antibiotic resistance testing. A few interesting experiments involved identifying normal flora in ourselves. We did throat cultures on each other and stool cultures on ourselves. I really like the lab environment; I like planning and running experiments (albeit short and simple ones). Most of the stuff is very straightforward; if we see gram+ cocci in clusters, then we should run a coagulase test; if it's in chains, we should look at the hemolysis pattern. But still, there's something to be said about the process of investigation. The end goal of the lab is to teach us how laboratory tests are done, when we should order them, and what sorts of results we can expect.